Chipping in -- one quilt top at a time
- Sr Perspective
- Jun 6, 2025
- 6 min read
St. Joe man, 89, continues a tradition of volunteering started by he and his late wife
By Karen Flaten
When Connie Lahr of Maple Lake went to visit her cousin, Marvin Stanger, in an assisted living facility in St. Joseph, she was amazed to find that he spent his time sewing – creating quilt tops to be donated to charity. She knew Marvin had always stayed busy, but had not realized how much he was still doing.
Connie knew Marvin had done many things over the course of his life, but when it turned out he was still volunteering at 89 years of age, she was impressed.
“And,” she said, “I like to see people get credit for what they do!”
Marvin worked for Frigidaire in St. Cloud for 43 years as a forklift driver. He also farmed in St. Joseph, but somehow he found time for many hobbies and interesting pursuits, including harvesting and processing black walnuts, making maple syrup, and collecting and polishing agates. But one of his most surprising pastimes was sewing quilt tops for charity, which he did along with his wife, Monica. Marvin and Monica had been married for many years and had completed multiple projects together when this new venture began.
“My mom was a sewer from the get-go,” said Brenda Stanger, Marvin and Monica’s daughter. “She did quilting for years. But when they were a little more confined to the home, they started doing the quilt tops together.”
“Well,” explained Marvin, “she sewed, I finished.”
But eventually, both Marvin and Monica sewed. They each had a Singer sewing machine, and sewed together in their living room at the farm in St. Joseph. The fabric was provided, as was the basic quilt design, through Catholic Charities. Marvin and Monica cut the fabric into the pieces required to make the pattern. Then they sewed the pieces together, according to the plan. When they were finished, the quilt tops were distributed to another group of volunteers who connected each quilt top to a base, added a filler layer, and then tied or sewed them together to make a quilt.
The finished quilts were then distributed to various places. According to Mary Thyen, the coordinator (or go-to person, as she prefers to be called) of the Catholic Charities Quilting Group, the quilts are sent to Veterans organizations, hospices and other charities. Some are also donated to Catholic Charities Emergency Assistance in St. Cloud, where people facing hardships can choose a quilt to bring home, along with food and other household items.
Marvin and Monica sewed quilt tops for many years at their home. Mary recalls that she and her husband used to bring fabric to the Stangers’ home for them to sew. Then Mary and her husband would pick up the finished quilt tops to bring to the volunteers who filled them and finished them.
“That’s a story of two saints!” exclaimed Mary, as she recalled Marvin and Monica and their dedication to completing the quilt tops for Catholic Charities. Mary stopped for a minute, and explained that she did not mean the word “saint” literally, as they were not canonized. It was just a manner of speaking, she said. But she remembered that the Stangers were “a remarkable couple - they did so many things! They dried walnuts, made maple syrup, and canned this and canned that!”
Asked about their many activities, Marvin also recalls working to process the black walnuts that were harvested from the black walnut trees on the farm. Marvin remembers hulling them, washing them in the washing machine and drying them in onion sacks. Once they had dried, they had to crack them. They were so hard to crack that Marvin designed and made a machine with rollers that cracked the shells so they could pick out the nutmeats.
“It was a lot of work,” he said.
Making maple syrup was another activity the Stangers enjoyed. One of Marvin and Monica’s sons lives on acreage with plenty of maple trees. So Marvin and his family worked to tap the maple trees and made maple syrup.
“Nowadays you can use reverse osmosis to get the moisture out of the sap, but back then you had to boil it for hours,” said Marvin, explaining that 40 gallons of maple sap makes 1 gallon of maple syrup, so it took a long time to boil it down.
Marvin’s sister, Lenore, remembered that Marvin and Monica used to make booyah, and would invite family members over to enjoy it with them.
“It was a good way to get friends and relatives together,” she said.
But in September of 2024, Monica passed away. Marvin’s health issues landed him in an assisted living facility in St. Joseph. Although grieving his wife, and in spite of his health issues, Marvin has persisted in sewing quilt tops. His Singer sewing machine is on prominent display; the quilt top he has just finished spread out so it can be folded and taken to the quilting and finishing group. Marvin leaves the folding to his daughter, Brenda, since an old shoulder injury makes folding a hardship for him. When Brenda visits, she folds the quilt tops, then brings them to the Catholic Charities Quilting Group in St. Cloud so they can be finished.
“I pick up material from Mary Thyen at Catholic Charities,” said Brenda, “I cut larger pieces into smaller pieces” for Marvin, “and I iron them. Then I put the pieces together into a pattern” so Marvin can sew them together.
Marvin then proceeds to sew the quilt tops together. Then, said Brenda, “I bring the finished quilt tops back to Mary.”
“That’s another angel!” exclaimed Mary, as she mentioned Brenda’s help in facilitating Marvin’s continued sewing. Mary and the other quilters in the group expressed gratitude for how much the Stangers have contributed over the years, and how much Marvin is still doing, with Brenda’s help.
Marvin’s set-up includes a table by the window where he cuts the pieces of material, and, perpendicular to the window, along the wall, is his Singer sewing machine. Even though Marvin uses a wheelchair, he can easily move back and forth between the cutting area and the sewing area.
When asked how many quilt tops Marvin completes in a week, Brenda thought about it for a minute, then said, “Probably about four or five quilt tops a week.” Her dad, she said, “spends about five-to-six hours a day sewing quilt tops.”
“It helps to pass the time,” said Marvin, but the connection to his late wife is there too. Her obituary is printed out and posted on his refrigerator so he can see it from his chair. Memories are all around Marvin as he works. A photo of the farm where he grew up is propped on the table, and cards from grandchildren are tacked to a bulletin board.
Marvin, who has lived in St. Joseph his entire life, has a window that looks out on woods where he hunted as a younger man. “My son got a 14-point buck in there one time,” he remembered. The fields in front of the woods were owned by his father-in-law. “And my boys cut the hay in that field, my old home place is just a couple of miles down the road, my boy lives there now,” He said. His pride but also sadness coming through.
But Marvin’s eyes light up when he shows a treasure that he made. Bringing out a beautiful rosary made of North Shore agate, Marvin mentioned that he searched for and found the agates, polished them and created the rosary. “I made several of these,” said Marvin. He made a special rosary for his wife, but also made one for each of his children, as well as giving them to other family members and friends. The rosary gleams in its box, a prize possession, the agates shining in the light. Marvin beams as he shows off another of his many accomplishments.
Comments